Heed discrimination laws in medical care of disabled

I READ with interest your Feb. 9 editorial "The disabled need doctors," concerning the difficulties encountered by people with disabilities trying to obtain quality primary medical care. You correctly praise the recommendations made in a report by the Arc of Massachusetts, including the proposal that specialized training concerning the needs of patients with disabilities should be made an integral part of all standard medical educations.

As the report notes, many medical internists avoid people with disabilities because of their uneasiness with such patients, and because such patients sometimes may pose challenges during routine medical visits. What needs to be recognized, however, is that however uneasy a doctor may feel in providing the care, that doctor's refusal to provide quality medical treatment to a person with a disability is a violation of both federal and Massachusetts disability discrimination laws.

As the Arc report correctly points out, many healthcare professionals are often "not sensitized to this population." While additional training as to the special needs of patients with disabilities would be most welcome, what also needs to be made clear to such medical professionals is that any discrimination against patients with disabilities will not be tolerated or ignored.

We must all address the continuing and widespread occurrence of medical discrimination against people with disabilities, and better training of healthcare professionals to combat such discrimination would be a great start.

Robert A. Whitney
Boston

The writer is president and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Disability Law Center.